Autoweek Racing report card: Our picks for the best and worst of NASCAR 2017

Best races, overachievers/underachievers and the most memorable moments

Autoweek Staff

LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

The Martinsville night race provided several memorable moments from the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Autoweek Racing is ringing in the new year with a look back at the best and worst of the 2017 season. Check back all week as Formula 1, NASCAR and IndyCar all get report cards to determine the most memorable moments of the most recent season.

Without further ado, here is what NASCAR provided the racing community in 2017.

Best Race: Select the best overall race of the year

Al Pearce: Only five of the year’s 36 races had at least 25 lead changes, four of them on restrictor-plate tracks: 37 at Daytona Beach in the spring, 26 at Talladega in the spring, 33 at Daytona Beach in the summer and 30 at Talladega in the fall. (Texas in the fall had 27 lead changes). Eighteen drivers led the Daytona 500 (winner Kurt Busch led only the last lap in a Ford), the summer Daytona Beach race had 16 leaders and the Talladega races had 14 and 16 leaders. (Texas had 13 in the fall). With three leaders in the final three laps, the Daytona 500 earns this award, but just barely.

Matt Weaver: In the immediate aftermath of the Can-Am 500, I called the Phoenix playoff race a near-perfect race. It had a little bit of everything, did it not? It was the final chance to make the Championship 4 at Homestead and delivered all the expectations therein. In addition to playoff drama, there was the payoff on the Chase Elliott versus Denny Hamlin incident from Martinsville and an emotional final victory for Matt Kenseth.

Greg Engle: It would be hard to argue against the fall race at Martinsville: unknown winner until the final few feet, lots of bent sheetmetal, hurt feelings, cursing drivers and even a drunken fan going after a driver, all under the new lights installed at the historic short track that allowed the racing to continue past sunset. This race wasn’t just the best of the year but will be talked about for years to come.

Worst Race: Which race from 2017 was the ultimate snoozer?

Pearce: The fall race at Loudon was among NASCAR’s biggest snoozers in the modern era. Winner Kyle Busch led three times for 187 of 300 laps and Martin Truex Jr. led three times for 112, leaving Larson with one lone lap led. The margin of victory was only 2.64 seconds (third largest of the season), but the six lead changes among three drivers made this one pretty hard to watch.

Weaver: The ISM Connect 300 playoff race at New Hampshire is one that I would rather forget. New Hampshire hasn’t aged well in terms of producing good racing with the current model of cars. But what made this so disappointing was that the summer race was actually pretty decent, the first with the PJ1 TrackBite applied to the surface. Kyle Busch ran away with this one at the end, but only two other drivers led laps.

Engle: With the stage racing this year, for once in a long time, no points paying race really stands out as a “snoozer.” The stages brought a level of strategy that we haven’t seen in a long time, making even long drawn out fuel mileage races a bit more interesting. For the ultimate snoozer this year’s All-Star Race was the biggest disappointment of the year -- and perhaps in many.

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Best Finish: Regardless of the overall race, select the best finish of the year

Pearce: Kyle Busch in a Toyota relentlessly chased, caught and eventually passed the Chevrolet of Chase Elliott in the final laps at Dover in the fall. Given the amount of traffic and potential trouble spots around the narrow, unforgiving 1-mile track, there aren’t many drivers in the history of the series who could have done what Busch did that Sunday afternoon.

Weaver: The Martinsville playoff race delivered the type of emotionally charged, dramatic finish that fans will talk about for years. Chase Elliott dominated the closing laps, appearing destined to win his first race and make the Championship 4, gets passed during a late pit stop by Brad Keselowski. Elliott charged back to the front, only to get shoved into the wall by Denny Hamlin. That set up a GWC with Kyle Busch outdueling Martin Truex Jr. I love this place, even if for some of the wrong reasons, sometimes.

Engle: Martin Truex’s hard-fought win at the fall Kansas race. The finish came after lots of drama in the field during the race and capped an emotional day after the Furniture Row Racing team lost a crew member prior to the race. Ben Rhodes first Truck series win at Vegas is a close runner-up.

BiggestStory: Select the No. 1 overall news story of the season

Pearce: You couldn’t sling a dead cat around without someone making some sort of reference to Chevrolet Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s impending retirement. At least we had a handful of races before the “Farewell, Junior” storyline became the overriding theme of the season. A distant second was the generally accepted notion that stage racing was fairly successful after all.

Weaver: #apprecieightyeightion. But also, the number of drivers getting forced into retirement or nearly falling into the predicament. Matt Kenseth didn’t want to retire, but the financials of the sport dictated his departure. Danica Patrick essentially left because she couldn’t find the funding needed to race full time with a contending team. Stewart-Haas Racing forced Kurt Busch into a contract renegotiation with an opt-out that eventually paid him less than what he made in 2017. The times, they are a changin’, but don’t confuse change for evolution.

Engle: The changing of the guard. Much like we went through over a decade ago, older drivers retired or lost rides, and new young superstars are trying to make their mark.

Best Quote: Who was the most quotable driver of 2017?

Pearce: No clue.

Weaver: "That is the biggest dumbass I've ever seen in my life. That son of a (expletive) can't drive a wood screw. Damn!" – Chase Elliott about Michael McDowell

"Everything is great." – Kyle Busch

"Sometimes, you just don’t like a guy." – Kyle Busch on Brad Keselowski

Engle: Anything, anything, Dale Earnhardt Jr. says is quoted somewhere -- never more so than in his final year as a full-time driver. Junior wasn’t shy, either, opening up and giving us some memorable quotes each and every week.

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Unbelievable Moment: Choose the most surreal or hard-to-believe event of 2017

Pearce: An ambulance on pit road at Richmond in the fall caused an accident that damaged Clint Bowyer’s Ford and sidelined pole-winner Matt Kenseth’s Toyota. The race was under caution for a Danica Patrick incident when the ambulance inexplicably went on the track for almost a lap, then just as inexplicably stopped at the entrance to pit road. Bowyer and Kenseth got together in the mass of cars trying to avoid the ambulance -- which had no business being where it was.

Weaver: Just when you think you’ve seen it all in NASCAR, an ambulance gets stopped at the entrance to pit road with the pits opened by race control, nearly getting drilled by Matt Kenseth. On the internet, we call that a WTAF moment.

Engle: Matt Kenseth nearly running into an ambulance during a caution at the fall Richmond race. The ambulance stopped at the entrance to pit road during a caution and was nearly hit by Kenseth. Kenseth did suffer damage to his race car after rear-ending the car of Clint Bowyer, who had slowed to miss the ambulance.

Bonehead Moment:What was the dumbest move of the year?

Pearce: It’s uncool to pile on when a team is already down, but Penske Racing’s encumbered spring victory at Richmond with Joey Logano’s Ford and Joe Gibbs Racing’s encumbered fall victory at Darlington with Denny Hamlin’s Toyota were just plain stupid. The “biggest bonehead” tiebreaker here is that Hamlin was also encumbered after winning the Xfinity Series race at Darlington the same weekend his Cup victory was encumbered.

Weaver: Remember the guy that climbed the catchfence during the June race at Dover? Yeah. Bonehead. Also, do you remember that NASCAR didn’t even throw a caution while security guards retrieved him? Boneheads.

Engle: Erik Jones ripping down the crossover stairs at Charlotte in October during a run in the NBC Sports demo car. Dear Erik, you are a professional race car driver … This ties with Kevin Harvick’s spotter Tim Fedewa dropping a sandwich off the top of the Pagoda at Indy and getting his hard card snatched by NASCAR.

Biggest Wreck: Select the most memorable wreck of 2017

Pearce: Not the biggest in the traditional sense of carnage, but Toyota driver Denny Hamlin trashing Chase Elliott in the fall at Martinsville had and will continue to have implications. Elliott, in a Chevrolet, seemed destined for the long-awaited breakthrough Cup victory that would have kept his championship hopes alive. Instead, the shameless incident strengthened Elliott’s image as a fan favorite and further painted Hamlin as a frustrated and bitter veteran whose best days are behind him.

Weaver: The entirety of the fall Talladega race. Good lord.

Engle: Take your pick from the numerous crashes at the fall Talladega race. Three red flags, 14 cars left running at the end. There were playoff implications, to boot.

Overachiever: Which driver did the most with the least?

Pearce: It can be argued that the championship team of crew chief Cole Pearn and driver Martin Truex Jr. overachieved and exceeded all expectations. The Toyota team is based in faraway Denver, owned by a Vietnam vet (Barney Visser) who knows enough to stay out of the way, is run day-to-day by a capable and experienced racer (Joe Garone) and has one of the sport’s best PR man (Dave Ferroni). Truex gave Furniture Row Racing eight victories in 2017, more than in the organization’s first 379 starts (six victories) dating to 2005. It was fourth in points in 2015 before slipping to 11 in the 2016 season. It’s fair to say that hardly anyone within the NASCAR world expected Truex and Pearn to complete 98 percent of the available laps and finish top 10 in 26 of 36 races. In fact, Truex posted career-best numbers in victories, top-fives, top-10s, laps completed, times led, laps led and average start and average finish.

Weaver: In some ways, I’m gutted for Kyle Larson and the No. 42 Ganassi Racing team. On one hand, this could be viewed as a season to build upon and the genesis of NASCAR’s next could-be dynasty. On the other hand, this was a Ganassi championship-caliber effort that we haven’t truly seen since Sterling Marlin in 2002. In either case, it seems like Larson elevated a team that wasn’t quite championship ready into the conversation with the likes of Joe Gibbs Racing, Furniture Row and Team Penske.

Engle: Kyle Larson proved on more than one occasion that no matter the condition of the race car, he can compete. Whether a missed setup or damage, Larson can do things with a race car others can only dream about.

Biggest Bust: Which driver did the least with the most?

Pearce: Considering what he and crew chief Chad Knaus had to work with every weekend, seven-time (and defending) series champion Jimmie Johnson had a rotten season. The Chevrolet team won three early-season races and made the playoffs, but finished 10th in the final standings and never came close to what would have been a record-setting eighth Cup.

Weaver: Now that she’s announced her departure from NASCAR after the Daytona 500, it’s fair to say this distinction has been the sole domain for Danica Patrick during her tenure in the Cup Series. She’s a star for her trailblazing exploits on the track and in the Indianapolis 500, but stock cars were never a fit for the 35-year-old.

Engle: Kasey Kahne has the talent and the equipment at Hendrick Motorsports, but for some reason, the two never really meshed in the last few years. Yes, he won in 2017, but beyond that struggled, proving that talent and superior equipment don’t always equate to running up front. Hopefully, Kahne will be able to find the speed with his new team Leavine and move to the “most with the least” category in 2018.

Engle: This is a tie between the Gray Ghost scheme Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally got to race at Martinsville (it had been denied him at Darlington the year before when he was out with a concussion) and the Hooters scheme raced by Chase Elliott. It was ironic because Alan Kulwicki beat Elliott’s father, Bill, for the NASCAR Cup title in 1992 with the same scheme.